Ad imaginem suam. The Adamic Model and Exclusive Monoanthropism in Human Simulacra

The aim of the present paper is to trace the Nachleben of the logics characterizing the Adamic episode within the fictional reflection on human simulacra. In fact, Judeo-Christian 'exclusive monotheism' is based on the strict ontological differentiation of God, the unique Creator, from the World, as his Creation. Such a conception of monotheism is, as Jan Assmann pointed out, strictly connected to a repressive exercise of violence and to God's opposition against every possible form of ontological rivalry. In the Genesis, Yahweh turns this law machinery even against his simulacra, the creatures made «in his own image»: Adam and Eve are removed from Eden and condemned to mortality only as a result of their attempt to become «like God, knowing good and evil». By means of a brief analysis of some exemplary literary cases (Mary Shelley, Isaac Asimov, Ernst Jünger), an attempt will be made to show how the fear and violence exercised by man towards his simulacra are deeply linked to a secular revival of the theological-juridical complex intertwined with the Adamic model.